Piedmont Natural Gas Hosts South Carolina Stop on NGV Road Rally

Piedmont Natural Gas hosted the only South Carolina stop on a coast-to-coast tour of natural gas vehicles when the 2017 “From Sea to Shining Sea” NGV Road Rally passed through Spartanburg.

Vehicles participating in the relay-style tour filled up at Piedmont’s public CNG refueling station in Spartanburg.

A press conference will feature remarks from Piedmont Natural Gas and Palmetto Clean Fuels Coalition officials, a display of NGVs and an awards ceremony to recognize notable CNG users from the region, including AT&T, UPS, Waste Management and Gaffney-based Randolph Trucking.

“As part of our commitment to sustainable business practices, Piedmont Natural Gas has been a longtime proponent of using cleaner, low-cost CNG as a transportation fuel, and we are proud to host today’s NGV Road Rally,” said Karl Newlin, senior vice president and chief commercial officer for natural gas operations for Piedmont’s parent company, Duke Energy. “Demand for CNG has increased significantly in recent years, and we believe it will continue to grow as we help build out the nation’s network of refueling stations.”

Piedmont’s partners for the event included the Palmetto Clean Fuels Coalition, an initiative of South Carolina Energy Office that is focused on building an alternative fuels market in South Carolina. In addition to hosting the event, one of Piedmont’s own fleet vehicles fueled by CNG will drive a leg of the tour from Spartanburg to Salisbury, North Carolina.

The Spartanburg refueling station is one of 10 public CNG stations Piedmont operates throughout its service territory of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Piedmont will open its 11th station this summer in Hickory, North Carolina, near the junction of Interstate 40 and U.S. 321.

In addition to promoting the use of CNG, Piedmont also has converted more than 38 percent of its own corporate fleet vehicles to run on CNG and expects that percentage to grow to nearly 42 percent by the end of 2017.